Posted by Erin Carlo, GD Public Relations Manager and Fiction Reader for 5.1
Dear SUNY students,
Gandy Dancer wants to publish YOUR work! There are only 5 days left to submit, but it only takes a few minutes to do so. Go to https://gandydancer.submittable.com/submit now and bring your fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and artwork to students and humans all over the world with Gandy Dancer.
With love always,
The Gandy Dancers of Issue 5.1
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Posted by Lea Karnath, Managing Editor for Issue 4.1
In early November, two representatives from Gandy Dancer, myself and Keara Hagerty, the founder of Guerilla Poetry, Evan Goldstein, and Katie Bockino, the editor of MiNT, all took a six-hour road trip. Our destination? Chester, Pennsylvania to participate in the Forum for Undergraduate Student Editors (FUSE) Conference held at Widener University. The two-day conference was filled with presentations about literary journals from institutions across the United States, both big and small, including Susquehanna University, Cabrini College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Mary Baldwin College, University of California, Los Angeles, and several more.
Evan, Keara, Lea, and Katie at FUSE
FUSE is a national organization that provides a network for undergraduate student editors and writers along with their faculty advisers. Their mission is “to foster visionary magazine work and to support undergraduates who are eager to pursue careers in writing, publishing, and editing.” Each year, FUSE hosts a national conference where undergraduates share their experiences with the world of editing.
This year’s conference theme, “Will You Look at That?: Aesthetics and the World of Undergraduate Publications,” allowed Keara and me to think more deeply about how we want to impact readers when they pick up a copy of our publication.
Our presentation entitled “Looks Matters/Looks Matter: Finding a Niche in a Robust Literary Community” explored the varying aesthetics each Geneseo publication offers. Evan discussed how the barebones aesthetic of Guerilla encourages discourse about controversial topics; works appear in unconventional places such as academic hallways and even bathroom stalls to catch the attention of a student or faculty member who may not typically pick up a standard literary publication. Next, Katie spoke about MiNT, referring to the publication as a “utilitarian booklet” of writing about multicultural experiences. Lastly, Keara and I discussed how Gandy Dancer strives to look professional with hopes of attracting both readers and writers while upholding our mission: “to forge connections between people and places” through literature and art. Our aesthetic, clean and simple, aims to honor the work we receive from SUNY students.
Although the three publications—Gandy Dancer, Guerilla, and MiNT—differ in content and mission statements, there is a sense of community and interconnectedness. Evan and Katie have been previously published in Gandy Dancer. Evan also currently holds a section editor position in poetry for Gandy Dancer and has been published in MiNT. We all share a passion for good writing.
Our presentation also discussed some of Gandy Dancer’s obstacles. While other undergraduate publications talked about receiving funds through their school’s English Departments (or even being paid as a student editor), we discussed the challenges that comes along with no funding. Even so, Gandy Dancer is still able to attract SUNY students to submit their work. This is not only impressive for an undergraduate publication, but also for a public school where our art department—along with that of other SUNY schools—has been cut from the curriculum. We want to serve students by providing an outlet to express their creativity whether it be in the form of art or the written word.
The conference’s presentations covered an array of topics such as selection processes, physical vs. online journals, and even featured a business plan about creating corporate sponsorships within the surrounding community. Speaking about Gandy Dancer and showcasing past journals made us feel proud and confident in saying: “Yes, literary journals are still relevant and an important means of expression, even today.”
For more information about FUSE, check out the FUSE National website: http://www.fuse-national.com/.
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Posted by Erin Duffy, Nonfiction Editor for Issue 4.1
I’ve wanted to go into publishing for years. I imagined myself in a bustling metropolitan setting, attending corporate meetings, with piles and piles of manuscripts as far as the eye can see. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in the last year or so, it’s that that image makes up only a small fraction of the publishing industry: however big and powerful the major publishing houses may be, there are just as many rewarding opportunities –for writers and aspiring editors alike—in smaller corners.
My first experience with small press was actually
quite indirect. Last year, my father published a novel entitled The Crew. It was his first venture into the literary world in any capacity: my father is an engineer with a military background, but nonetheless, he spent the last ten years or so writing a novel about life in the US Merchant Marine Academy in his spare time. The finished product was a whopping seven hundred-page book with nowhere to go. So, after at least two rewrites (and plenty of pestering from me), he began to seriously look into getting it published.
The first roadblock presented itself immediately. “Basically, I learned that if you wanted to go to a big publishing house, you had to have an agent,” my father told me recently. “And I wasn’t sure how to go about getting one. It’s almost like being an actor, where you need an agent to get auditions for you. But it’s still a matter of whether or not [the agent] would be willing to take you on as a client.”
My father’s analogy wasn’t too far off the mark. Many publishing houses don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts, and they almost always want to speak to a literary agent first rather than to the authors themselves, especially if the author is unpublished. Finding an agent was essentially an extra audition process that my dad didn’t want to bother with.
So instead, he turned to a little company by the name of Page Publishing. Continue reading
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Posted by Brendan Mahoney, GD Poetry Reader for 3.2
There’s a website that has a URL with sixty ones in it. Not the phrase “sixty ones.” The number one sixty times. Upon arriving at 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111.com, you’ll be asked to “go to Rupert Murdoch’s Myspace page to be my friend.” The entire website is just one page, as far as I can tell. One page plastered with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face superimposed onto the bodies of what I think are Sailor Moon characters and phrases in both English and Korean. If you take the time to hover around the website you’ll find a few other treats, like .gifs of ‘90s Arnold and other Korean and English phrases like HOLY PLASTIC BEEFY, which flash onscreen when you mouse over certain sections of the page. The best part about this page, in my opinion, is that this whole display that I just described takes up about three-eighths of the browser.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Superimposed
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Posted by Andrew Nauffts, GD Art Editor for 3.2
Recently we had the pleasure of sitting down with Michael Palmer, one of the managing editors of Iron Horse Literary Review (IHLR). Our conversation ranged in topic from the magazine’s past, present, to the nature of lit mags, to Michael’s goals for Iron Horse. He was eager to talk about his role as managing editor and the world of literary magazines to our class of emerging writers and editors, and we learned a lot by speaking with him.
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Posted by Sarah Christ, Former GD contributor for 2.2 and 2.1, & editor for 3.1
As a college student, to me getting published was this lofty and unreachable goal, something that only real writers could do. After all, I was still in school learning to be a writer, who would want my work? Then I heard that Gandy Dancer was looking for work from SUNY students. Continue reading
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